The invention relates to a luminaire for a rod-shaped fluorescent lamp provided with pin bases at both ends and having an elongated support profile whose width is only slightly larger or smaller than the diameter of the lamp envelope and which at both ends has contact-provided sockets each having a groove to accommodate the base pins when inserting the lamp in an axially parallel manner.
Luminaires of this type are conventionally provided with sockets in which the lamp is inserted with its base pins in an axially parallel manner after which the base pins are locked and contacted with the socket contacts by means of a quarter turn of the lamp about its longitudinal axis. However, if for constructional reasons the luminaire should be very narrow, i.e., if its width should be only slightly larger or even smaller than the diameter of the lamp envelope, commercially available lamp sockets can no longer be used because they cannot be manufactured with such small dimensions.
A luminaire for a rod-shaped fluorescent lamp having an elongated support profile whose width is of the order of the lamp envelope is known from EP-PS 12234. For inserting or exchanging the lamp the sockets are arranged to move in the axial direction with respect to the support profile, that is to say the sockets can be axially moved outwards from their normal operating position into a locked position such that the fluorescent lamp can be inserted or removed without any further measures. Independently of the fact that a relatively cumbersome construction is used in this case, the known luminaire requires a large space in the longitudinal direction. Then a stroke of non-interrupted light is impossible.